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Bankruptcy Law
Disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi’s auction items included Persian rugs, bronze statues, holographic Pokémon card
Tom Girardi was disbarred in June. Photo by Sipa USA via the Associated Press.
A court-ordered auction of items from disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi’s California mansion yielded nearly $500,000 that will be used to help pay creditors in the bankruptcy of his personal estate.
Law.com and Law360 list some of the auctioned items. They included Gucci Oxford shoes, Persian rugs, furniture, bronze statues, sculptures, oil paintings, rare literature, a Steinway grand piano and 19th-century tapestry panels.
Collectibles sold at the auction included a basketball signed by former professional basketball player Michael Jordan, boxing gloves signed by former professional boxers George Foreman and Joe Frazier, albums signed by singers Kenny Rogers and Christopher Cross, a Wrestlemania 2000 towel signed by former professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and a holographic Pokémon card featuring Charizard.
John Moran of John Moran Auctioneers & Appraisers told Law360 that the “sell-through rate” was 100% and the total take was $493,641.
Girardi’s estranged wife is Erika Girardi, one of the stars of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reality TV show. His firm was known for helping obtain a $333 million pollution judgment in a case that inspired the movie Erin Brockovich.
Girardi’s downfall began when a lawsuit accused him of embezzling settlement money intended for widows and orphans who lost loved ones on Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight 610, which crashed in October 2018. The suit alleged that Girardi had taken “massive litigation loans,” and Girardi was apparently using settlement money to pay them down.
A lawsuit filed by the bankruptcy trustee for Girardi’s law firm says $2 million stolen from Lion Air Flight plaintiffs was “only the tip of the iceberg.” The suit cited an investigation that found that at least $14 million was stolen from client settlements.
The lawsuit, filed against two litigation lenders, says claims against the bankruptcy estate totaled more than $495 million at the end of August.
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